Manufacture of hosiery and other knit articles from raw silk.



IVI. WEIL. MANUFACTURE OF HOSIERY AND OTHER KNIT ARTICLES FROM RAW SILK.APPLICATION FILED DEC.6. 191s.

LQE GWO Patented Aug. 28, 1917.

WITNESSES E Mam w? mob/ms "MILTON IVEIL, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

MANUFACTURE OF HOSIEBY AND OTHER ICNI'I .ABTIGLES FROM RAW SILK.

Specification of Letters I'atent. p a m 2g, 1 m.

Application filed December 6, 1916. Serial No. 135,360.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MILTON WEIL, a citizen of the United States, and aresident of the city of New York, borough of Manhattan, in the countyand State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvementsin the Manufacture of Hosiery and other Knit Articles from Raw Silk, ofwhich the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of the invention is to provide certain new and usefulimprovements in the manufacture of knit hosiery and other knit articlesfrom raw silk whereby the spinnin or throwing of the silk is entirelydispense with and the hosiery produced is of the desired density withoutan increase in the number of raw silk ends used for each knitting memberor strand.

In the manufacture of knit silk hosiery as heretofore practised, it hasbeen customary to spin one or a number of raw silk 1 ends (anywhere from5 to 25 ends) into a twisted thread (including singles, tram andorganzine), to wind the twisted thread onto a spool or the like and thento feed the twisted thread to the thread carrier and to the knittingelements of a knitting machine to form the knitted fabric. It will benoticed that the practice of spinning or twisting the raw silk ends intoa twisted thread involves considerable expense but has heretofore beendeemed necessary in order to insure thestrength and firmness of the knitarticle and to allow proper unwinding of the twisted thread from thespool and feeding of the thread practically tensionless to the knittingelements. The feeding of loose, non-twisted ends to the knittin elementsof a knitting machine has hereto ore not been carried out, as it wasconsidered impracticable to unwind loose, non-twiste'd ends from a spooland feed the same to the knitting elements without producingentanglement of the loose ends. In a companion application for anattachment for high speed winders, Serial No. 135,359, filed December 6,1916, I have shown and described a mechanism by which the non-twistedraw silk ends are unwound from the spool and fed in this non-twistedcondition and with little tension to a winding'machine or directly tothe thread carrier and knitting elements of a knitting machine.

My present invention consists in a method whereby the ends of raw silkare doubled to form what I prefer to term a knitting member having apluralityof the ends in untwisted relation and then forming the knittingmember into knitted interlocking stltches with the raw silk endsremaining in untwisted relation. My invention further consists in a newarticle of manufacture, namely, knit hosiery or the like, formed of aknitting member which consists of a plurality of ends of raw silk inuntwisted relatlon to each other, the knitting member bemg formed intointerlocking stitches with the raw silk ends remaining in untwistedrelation.

In order to accomplish the desired result 1n detail, I proceed asfollows, special reference being had to the accompanying drawmgs, inwhich- Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus for carrying themethod into effect, parts being shown in section;

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view of the same on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged side elevation of a portion of the knit fabric.

A number of raw silk ends arranged one alongside the other form anon-twisted knittingmember 10 unwinding from a spool 11 removablymounted on a vertically disposed spindle 12 fixed at its upper end to asuitable overhead support 13 directly above the knitting machine. Thebottom flange of the spool 11 rests on a key 14 pivoted at 15 to thespindle and adapted to swing into alinement with the spindle whenever itis desired to remove an empty spool from the spindle 12 and place afilled spool on the spindle 12. It is understood that after the spool isslipped onto the spindle 12 the key 14 is swung into right-angledposition relative to the spindle 12 to support the spool 11 on thespindle. The knitting member 10 after unwinding from the spool 11 passesthrough an eye or similar guide 16 held on the lower end of an elasticband 17 attached at its upper end to an eye 18 of a flexible flier arm19 terminating in a coil20, the end of which a is fastened to an arm 21of a hub 22 shown in the form of a heavy coil of wire loosely encirclingthe spindle 12 and resting on a collar 23 formed on the spindle a shortdistance above the top of the spool 11. The knitting member 10 afterleaving the eyelid passes through a thread guide 25 located centrallybelow the spindle 12 andabove a winding machine or a knitting machine tobe formed into knit interlocked stitches for producing a knit article inwhich the knitting member 10 is formed of non-twisted raw silk ends. Bytaking the untwisted knitting member 10 oli' the spool by way of thethread guide 16 held on the elastic band 17 the ends of the knittingmember are not liable to become entangled. It is understood that whenthe knitting member 10 is passed to a winding machine it is wound up ona cone, cop, tube, bobbin or similar spool device, to be subsequentlyused on the knitting machine for delivering the knitting member to thethread carrier and the knitting elements of the knitting machine, but,as above stated, the knitting member 10 may be directly fed to thethread carrier of a hosiery knitting machine.

From the foregoing it will be seen that by the arrangement describedknit hosiery or other knit article is formed of a knitting member ofuntwisted raw silk ends, which latter remain in untwisted condition onthe knit article.

It will be noticed that by manufacturing hosiery in the mannerdescribed, the expense of twisting or throwing is entirely dispensedwith and the hosiery produced is of a denser quality without increase inthe number of the raw silk ends for each knitting member. The strengthof the hosiery is not impaired on account of not twisting the raw silkends.

It will also be noticed that by leaving the raw silk ends untwisted moredensity is given to the fabric, considering the number of raw silk endsin a twisted thread to be the same as in the untwisted knitting member10.

Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters ends in untwisted relation,and then forming the knitting member into knitted interlocking stitcheswith the raw silk ends remaining in untwisted relation.

2. The herein described method of manufacturing hosiery from raw silk,consisting in doubling a plurality of ends of raw silk in the naturalstate to form a knitting member, delivering the knitting member to theknitting elements of a knitting machine, and then forming the knittingmember into knitted interlocking stitches with the raw silk endsremaining in untwisted relation.

3. As an article of manufacture, raw silk knit hosiery, made wholly of aknitting member which consists of a plurality of ends of raw silk in thenatural state and in untwisted relation to each other, the knittingmember being formed into interlocking stitches with the raw silk endsremaining in untwisted relation.

1. The herein described method of manufacturing hosiery from raw silk,consisting in arranging a plurality of raw silk ends one alongside theother in untwisted relation to form a single strand, winding the strandon a spool, maintaining the raw silk ends of the strand in untwistedrelation while exerting a pull on. the strand to unwind the strand fromthe spool and while guiding the strand through guiding means capable offlexing and stretching and receding from or approaching the spool, andfinally delivering the strand to the knitting elements of a knittingmachine to knit the strand into interlocking stitches with the raw silkends of the strand remaining in untwisted relation.

5. As an article of manufacture, raw silk knit hosiery which consistswholly of a single strand formed of a plurality of raw silk ends in thenatural state and in untwisted relation to each other and knitted intointerlocking stitches with the raw silk ends of the strand remaining inthe natural state and in untwisted relation.

WLTON WEIL.

